Emailed on January 25, 2010

Information Alert – Please update your records

On Sunday, I included Trevor Higby in the Council Meeting Commentary.

Later that evening, I received quite an irritated email from him demanding to know how I got the email address, threatening legal action if I did not respond. The email address I used was the one provided to every home in Lafayette through the council newsletter. I informed Mr. Higby of this.

Apparently, he is unaware he is the co-chair of the Mayor's water / sewer committee. The reason I assume this is because the water / sewer – council newsletter does not seem to peak his interest enough to read it.

He stated he has only given his email address to one person in Lafayette. Can we assume that was the Mayor? Now, I am greatly concerned. Does the Mayor willy nilly give out people's personal information? Now this email address Mr. Higby is concerned about keeping private is now a matter of public record. It has been published on a city document and sent to the approximate 1200 homes in town.

So, who do we get irritated at? The Mayor for releasing confidential information? OR the City Administrator Pro Tem, Trena McManus, who did not bother to ask the people she was releasing information on if it was okay? How many other of the Mayor's committee members were not happy with their information being released?

Fortunately for Mr. Higby, he does have recourse. There are penalties in place at the state level towards any entity for disclosing personal information. Any person can go the website of the Attorney General's Office and file a complaint. Maybe even make a few bucks.

Anyway – it certainly makes a case to take these committee ideas under one umbrella at the city hall. And then provide a responsibly trained person as a contact.

But, in looking out for Mr. Higby, I just wanted to let you know – do not send an email to address listed on the flyer. The response is not very nice.

We started a section to include the council newsletter (Posted here) for those that are interested. They will be posted at our site.
 

Below is the email from Trevor Higby and my response to him:

From Trevor to Angela

Ms. Flood,
 
I do not know how you obtained this email address as it has been given to very few contacts, all of which I know and only one within Lafayette.  I would like you to tell me how you obtained it since there are possible legal implications that I intend to pursue. 
Please do the following;
-remove me from all of your "newsletters" indefinitely
-respond in an email to this same address exactly how you gained knowledge of this email address
If I do not receive adequate information as to how you obtained my email address my attorney WILL be contacting you directly in order to get said information.
 
Trevor Higby
 

From Angela to Trevor:

I will remove you. That is not a problem. If there is additional information you need, please have your attorney contact me directly. That is not an issue. My complete contact information is located on our website.

I received it from the insert into the water bill, sent to each and every residence in Lafayette as part of a list of committees of people who asked to be contacted with information regarding matters of citizen interest. This would include approximately 1200 residences. As this information was relevant to the committee members, I included it.

If releasing your email was not of your request, that would be a matter to be taken up with the council.

Emailed on January 24, 2010

Post 1/14/2010 Meeting Commentary from Lafayette City Council

Normally, I use this time to go over the events of what transpired to try and make some sense of them. But, in the last 1-1/2 weeks, so many things have come out in the open, I think time would better be served explaining the ramifications.

Lafayette had a new city administrator start on January 4 and was present at the meeting. He was professional and had very little to say. As you listen to the rhetoric being tossed around by a select group of people, please remember, this is not ,and has never been, about the City Administrator. The problems in Lafayette lay at the feet of the council, as they are the ones ultimately responsible for the failings and successes of this city.

On Thursday, 1/24/2010, Mayor Heisler directed our new city administrator, a public official, to attend a meet and greet for a select group of citizens at Mayor Heisler's home. I guess he just couldn't help himself from showing off his new toy. I say that, because it appears that the Mayor feels he has been granted extended authority to direct staff to do his bidding, without receiving council approval. So, that got me thinking about the other things going on over the last couple of years with the Mayor, and his NewLafayette.org organization. Now, while their numbers were strong when they started, many have been disappointed with the ugly direction things have taken. Those that originally joined remembered his loud statements of transparency. Of justice for all.

But, if you knew that you were giving money to support a political machine, instead of the citizen access you were promised, would you still have given your money? The amount is not relevant. It has to be, because the Mayor doesn't remember how much money he collected or how he spent it. (The last numbers I know of were over $400.00). Consistently, we receive calls and emails of apology from people who believed these people would make things different here. But, based on what I now know, things are much worse for the citizens. Where is the code, that was so important to him and his group, to provide for safe, adequate housing for renters? Where are the documents they promised access to? Where is the true accounting information they promised to get for all? They have that information. But, choose not to share. He has stated the city collects over $600,000.00 more a year than the city needs to provide services. This equates to approximately $40.00 plus a month for each home. But, when pressed to prove this, he has been unable to do so. (For what its worth, I believe him – I think the city could quite easily provide much more than the $10.00 a month break that Darrell has asked them for.)

Mayor Heisler has created such a struggle for his own power, Lafayette residents are now caught in the crossfire. He has spent so much energy being caustic (or completely ignoring them) to those that don't agree with his agenda for his own control, the council now refuses to use any common sense in the legislation of this city.

An example you say? Well, Linda Lyon made the effort to track down every single house in Lafayette that does not have a house number. There were 30. Did she ask to have these people ticketed for being out of compliance? No. She offered to buy and install their address numbers so they could be found in the event of an emergency. She came to the council to ask for their help in directing staff to contact these residents and provide the offer. The council provided no support. The Fire Chief said no. He says he knows where every house is and doesn't have a problem. But, since he doesn't go on most calls, and the fire department isn't the only agency going to a home, this is where we lost the common sense. If you are a homeowner who has an emergency, and the responding agency cannot locate your home and you are damaged in the process (die, loss of limb, etc.), you now have a case against the council for liable. All because they were presented with a situation and refused to comply with the ordinance. Now that they read this, they will probably direct the staff to actually ticket the homeowner. But, such is our life here.

The ordinance directly states that the water restrictions are only to be used in the event that we are low on water; a crisis situation. They must be lifted when the crisis is over. But, Bob Cullen voted to keep the restrictions in place. Just to be a crab. No valid reason. Just okay with the city breaking the law. (Should we be surprised since he is now a 3 time champ at being fined by state agencies for violating state law for his personal pool business? I think I am not surprised at all.)

The council has the authority to appoint a citizens based advisory committee. This could be a valuable resource to the council, researching all types of topics, saving that staff time. Did the Mayor go to the council to begin these discussions? No. Did the citizens that wanted to be a part of it go to the council? No. The Mayor convinced them to trek on their own, with him the sole point of contact. Has anyone ever heard the council tell them no? No. In fact, when faced with any question for action, the council suddenly becomes quite comatose – the Mayor included – and no response is given at all. What happens because of that? These committees will do a lot of research and presenting, and the council will never consider what they have to say. One reason is because these committee meetings are not in the public view, many of the council decisions that could come from them would get the city sued. And can we really afford to keep spending on the attorney? And what a waste of paper.

Instead of Mayor Heisler continuing trying to usurp the power the entire council at large has, maybe he should try – for 10 minutes – being a team player. He should try working within the rules he has instead of bending and breaking them to toot his own horn about what a powerful man he is. If he did, things could finally begin to move forward here. People he doesn't control could be involved . Then we would start with a fair base. It would also mean that he would have time to follow the charter, which requires he sign documents the council approves, instead of picking and choosing what he will comply with.

There are issues coming up that we should be concerned about. The audit is about to be released. An audit that proves we are being over charged for our services. An audit that proves the only services the city really provides are water and sewer. An audit that proves the mayor has been remiss in being creative with the dollars he is responsible for approving. The council, again, is considering passing legislation to put the entire town on odd-even watering year round, instead of directing our Public Works Superintendent to create a viable, long term solution. We have the financial resources build a facility to store the 1,000,000 plus gallons a day we lose during the winter months. Is it of no concern the last CA was allowed to get a $250,000.00 loan at 6% interest when we had the cash in the bank? I have been told you cannot legislate common sense, but at what point does stupidity become illegal?

A citizen based committee would be good idea. If these citizens really want to see forward movement, they need to stop giving faux control to a man who has spent his time in office continuing to allow access only to his cheer leading team. A citizen based committee could also be responsible for researching citizen complaints to lack of access and lack of compliance. They could get information to residents, conduct visioning workshops, provide for beautification, promote the businesses, coordinate answers to citizen questions. There is a valuable resource to be had in the citizenry of Lafayette. And I challenge the council to practice forming the movement of saying Yes. It is so much easier to defend supporting the citizens than to have to hide from not.

The next scheduled council meeting, unless a quickly organized one takes place before than, is February 11, 2010 at 6:30 pm at Lafayette City Hall. I encourage the citizen groups that Mayor Heisler has seen fit to form outside of the public view to ask for the council support. Several options for donations have already been created to ease whatever budget concerns Bob Cullen keeps seeming to come up that may stall the process. Good luck with your efforts.

It takes tremendous discipline to control the influence, the power you have over other people's lives.
Clint Eastwood

Angela Flood

www.lafayetteoregon.org

Darrell videotaped the meeting, as usual. We are still providing copies, free of charge. Let me know if you would like a copy.

Emailed on January 10, 2010

Council Meeting 01/14/2010

6:30 pm

Lafayette City Hall

First, I want to express my sympathy to the Hank's family with Lotis' passing. While we didn't see eye to eye on city matters, he was a very dedicated contributor and will hold a place of history in Lafayette.

Second, this is where I normally tell you the council agenda and packet are available at our website and the city website. Not true this month. Lafayette's new City Administrator, Justin Boone, started on Monday, January 4^th, and apparently the gals at the front office decided to have a little giggle by not getting the packet posted. Maybe they just want to see him chastised or just look unprepared. But, considering the flub from two months ago, when Jaime was on vacation and not leaving one instruction of how to post to a website (think save as “insert pathway here”), there is no packet available website then either. So, who looks unprepared? The guy who just started and didn't know how much work went into getting information to people in such a time so they can review it? Or the people who knew better? But, since Trena was the administrator pro-tem, it was her responsibility to make sure it happened.

I was able to get a few pictures of the agenda from the glass outside city hall. So, here a few highlights. (The pictures are not that great, but I can email them to you if you want.) I don't have the background information on the topics, so who knows what the details are.

• A public hearing on the code changes. This is pretty standard – Darrell was at the Planning Commission meeting that started this.

• Don Fetting presents information on a water leak issue.

• An ordinance change on LZDO for FEMA.

• Appointing a city admin pro tem. Darrell's guess this is to close the resolution from last year, since it didn't have an expiration.

• Lifting the water restriction.

• Appointing a rep for the YCOM / Task Force.

• Darrell will be asking the council to review the rates and the need for the upcoming automatic increase.

• An executive session to discuss legal proceedings. Sewer plant lawsuit maybe?

Over the past few weeks, being stuck in bed with nothing but time on my hands, I have had an opportunity to reflect on a few things. One idea that kept coming back to me was the term 'change'. As in 'vote for change'. All over the place, politicians encourage people to 'vote for change'. And they do usually. Citizens vote for what their idea of change is. But, the politicians idea of change alters after the election. So, I am hoping that if they really want to be leaders, and represent those that elected them, they will think about what kind of change was being asked for. It wasn't spare change (although that can be convenient). It wasn't a change in face. It wasn't a change in hair color. People are voting for a change in the way government is handled. They want to know what the true information is. They want to be included, on whatever level they are requesting. They don't want to see their hard-earned dollar go willy nilly out the door without someone explaining to them why it needs to be spent. They want the kind of change the comes with doing things differently. It is a different world than it was even 20 years ago. It is cheap to get people information. It is free to get access to basic legal information, rather than paying an attorney to get it for you. It is easy to click a button in a database and provide the information that people want to see before spitting out a day's (or sometimes 2 day's) salary to pay a water bill.

Every single candidate that ran in Lafayette for the council (except Bob, who never promises anything, and Michael who no one knows why he even put his name in the hat), ran on a platform of change. But, as soon as they were elected, took an oath to something to what appears to be other than what they stated. Each one of these people promised things would be different here. You know what is different? The name of the club. Instead of it being Leard's cronies, it's become (as published by the News Register) the Heisler Faction and (as reported by NewLafayette.Org – Mayor Heisler's wife, Mary's, website) the Four Musketeers. But not a single one of the councilors has ever followed through on anything they have promised citizens.

• Chris Heisler has refused to return phone calls. Not just mine, but the several community members that have contacted me. Some of which are his own neighbors.

• It took 17 years, and me chasing down the city judge, for Bob Cullen to get a city business license for his pool business (still no CCB, so don't let him dig into the ground on your property). No, there were no fines imposed.

• Dean Rhodes has been dismissive to citizens on an ongoing basis, refusing even to provide basic information about citizen access, instead providing the text of the inconsistent council rules. I'm still waiting for a copy of the full rules to be posted on the city site.

• Chris Pagella tries to get information, but usually what he does get is lacking the needed details (An example – creating a requirement of fuel log, but expensive books were purchased, instead of sheets in binder and no auditing is being done). It makes me want to just stop asking for things because they figure out the most expensive way to get it done.

• Michael Roberts sporadically shows up.

• Leah Harper keeps apologizing before finishing a sentence. I think I am going to go through the tape of the next meeting and count how many versions of 'I'm sorry for asking' she can think up?

• The only person I have seen any growth from is Nick Harris. And, considering how terse he was until recently, anything would have been an improvement. Now, when he gets a meeting notice, he provides it to us, in case the city 'forgot'. And when the packet was missing relevant items last month, he was able to provide them. This happened after two incidents. One was the short meeting notice over the contract. The second was when they held the executive session to interview the candidates. Mayor Heisler started the meeting more than 15 minutes prior to the time stated (not in the minutes). And the meeting minutes were approved without comment. Minutes that failed to include the fact that Darrell and I were present. And I find it completely amazing that neither of the candidates being present were mentioned as showing up. That must have been an effective interview process.. But, since they 'forgot' to begin the recording at the beginning of the meeting (Trena again), I guess they figured their word was good enough. Good thing I found the contact information for the first candidate. He'll be helpful since I watched the council refus him access to the public portion of the meeting. Well, that will be up the Attorney General now. It would be sad for Justin if the meeting were deemed in violation.

Chris Heisler has created several committees. None of which are sanctioned by the council. Few of which are receiving the city's support. You can see the committee contact information on the flyer included with the water bill. If you want to start a committee for Mayor Heisler, it helps if you live in his HOA. These groups will be getting access to information that non Heisler members don't receive without paying for it. They will not be meeting under the scrutiny of the public eye and will not be recording their meetings for all to see. It is these types of clubs, not city committees, that continue to get elected officials in trouble in the long run. Here is a scenario recently documented. A mayor started one of these committee / clubs. Nothing was ever recorded. The mayor used the information to present to the council to pass land use changes. The change was challenged. When the land use board of appeals made their decision, it was determined that conversations took place outside the public forum and none of the council declared a conflict or bias, which overturned the council decision. It will be interesting to see what happens here. Mayor Heisler has continued to disappoint. In fairness, maybe now that he has access to information, his stance has changed on what is important. But, wouldn't it be great if he started sharing the information that causes him to operate behind the lines of what he promised?

So, while you think about how you want to be represented, think about what you are missing out on. The city is unable to provide a cost of delivery of service for either water or sewer. Mayor Heisler has stated the city collected $600,000.00 more than they needed last year. With 1200 water billings, that comes out to over $40.00 per bill, per month. Now, maybe $40.00 isn't anything to the council, but it is a lot to a person who has to work for every penny and is having to make choices over food or flushing their toilet. What would $480.00 a year do for you? So, as frustrating as dealing with them as may be, start asking why the council has made no forward movement in their promise to change things here, to lower the bill or why they would continue forward with the $3.00 rate increase that will be coming on the bill received April 1, 2010.

Ask them what their idea of change is? And ask them why you continue to live in Lafayette or continue to support the status quo. Because, as I said last month, real change will be coming. And it will all depend on how the council, and the new City Administrator, proceed with our dollars and their attitude toward the people who put them in their seats.

Just because everything is different doesn't mean that everything has changed.

Irene Peter

As always, you are Bcc'd. If you don't want to receive any further updates, please let me know. If you want to be added, shoot me an email. The councilor contact information (as well as Justin Boone's) is in the Cc line. Feel free to drop them a line.

Angela Flood

www.lafayetteoregon.org

Emailed on December  7, 2009

Council Meeting 12/10/2009

6:30 pm

Lafayette City Hall

The council packet is available at the city site and at ours.

After reviewing the packet, there are certainly some items of distress and concern. Part of my annoying personality is feeling like I have the right to point them out to you. So, here goes.

The Accounts Payable report, again, has very little information as to what we are writing the check for. Although the fire department has significant expenses, no one ever reports that the majority of the companies that are paid are all owned by the same master corporation. Further, the fire department, according to city hall, has their own account. So, why do some checks get written from their account and some from the city master? And how come electronic transfers and fire department checks do not have the mayor's countersignature even though the charter requires it? Some would refer to this as an authorized use of funds. Mayor Heisler knows he doesn't sign the transactions, but as long as his job is made easy, then he's good with whatever goes on.

Again, we get to pay the city attorney an enormous amount for the little time provided. Just for fun, I added up the number of hours they work for us. In just the one month, it was a whopping 20.6 hours, at a cost of $4,604.00. If you just figure straight averages, not taking out for the billing of the lower employee rates, it comes to $223.50 an hour. If that were a full time job, we are paying the city attorney $464, 880.00 a year. Now while some may feel Andy is quite brilliant (though that thought is lost on me), that seems quite high. As a comparison, the city attorney for McMinnville tops out at $116,506.00 ($56.00 an hour). Even the top attorney in Portland only makes $183,851 ($88.38 an hour) at their top scale. The council says they will get to a more cost effective conversation about the attorney services. But, it still hasn't made an agenda.

Speaking of whatever goes on:

Regarding the minutes of the Executive Session of 11/7/2009, it will be interesting to see if the meeting minutes are accepted as they are written. Because after personally observing the discrepancies, there are some real concerns regarding what is being presented to the council to approve. Lets see who has the courage to stand up for what is legal, as the investigation is already underway at the state level. What I want to know is did someone tell Trena to create the lie or did she do it on her own. Did someone tell her to 'fail' to press the record button? No matter – if the council approves them without the changes, it is on them to account for it.

The council is getting ready to pass the ordinance making an odd / even watering requirement all year. Is someone watering in the middle of December really an issue? And the city was responsible for approving the green lawn requirements to begin with when they required it in the homeowner association rules. Another stab at generating more revenue I suppose. All of this being done because the person responsible for running our public works can't tell us how much water we get down to each year. It's a hunch, he says. Even I was able to find out how much water we use., every year for many, many years (let me know if you want the link). And the historical data tells us that rainfall goes in cycles. Right now, we are on an upswing. I guess passing an ordinance regulating use is so much easier than actually addressing the long term problem.

The council is going to vote on making Trena the City Administrator Pro-Tem for the 1-1/2 weeks that we won't have one. Wouldn't it be nifty, if we are going to keep giving Trena all this responsibility, that she actually had a contract to be working with the city? According to her, she doesn't. And, as of yet, no one can locate the resolution even stating that her position was authorized by the council. It appears it just opened up, like a great hole. And she was planted it in. I suppose one thought no one would notice. And, besides, it saved that pesky public notification of a position opening.

And why is the council considering extending Diane's contract even further? To include a holiday when city hall is closed at no less. Are we providing compensation for Don Leard and Lotis Hanks for their testimony in the sewer plant lawsuit debacle? If so, let's pay Diane what they are getting paid. If not, then let's wait and see if the judge even needs her presence.

Come to the council meeting, or get a copy of the video from us. Stay informed, even if you don't have time (or for some, the patience) to be directly involved. Tell your neighbors to pay attention. We are on a cusp of change in Lafayette. Because, with the new year, people will be able to begin to cut the chaff from the wheat and find out who is really in charge.

Angela Flood

www.lafayetteoregon.org
 

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

George Orwell
 

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